Chapter 38: Arrest
Page (1/3)
She stopped in her tracks, utterly disappointed. She had originally planned to drag Tenchuback Temple into the mess and add a little excitement.
But in the end... this sheriff was actually a coward!
I had wagered my life to play with you, and you do not even have the courage to follow through?
What a letdown.
“By the way, there are these handcuffs too...” Wakaba raised her restrained hands, her eyes shining with excitement.
Kumagawa Masayoshi hurriedly unlocked the cuffs, ignoring Wakaba’s struggles.
Rie Hanada was completely bewildered by this point. She had no idea what was happening.
Shirotori Kiyoshi had said a few incomprehensible things, and then the sheriff had suddenly seemed like an entirely different person.
“Miss Hanada, we will not pursue the matter of your making a false report after arguing with your boyfriend. But there will not be a next time. Otherwise, we will detain you in accordance with the law.” Kumagawa Masayoshi turned to Rie Hanada and spoke sternly.
His expression and manner were nothing like a joke. If anything, they were overly solemn.
Rie Hanada nodded repeatedly in fright.
“Hey, Sheriff Kumagawa, what exactly are you doing?” Hirono Miwa, the reporter standing nearby, could no longer sit still after witnessing everything that had happened. “Not only are you condoning a criminal, you are also twisting right and wrong! As a lawful citizen, I am reporting you!”
“I nearly forgot about what you have in your hand. Hand it over.” Kumagawa Masayoshi fixed Hirono Miwa with a cold stare.
It was plainly the gaze one reserved for an enemy, as though Hirono Miwa had threatened his very life.
“Y-You cannot do this! I am a legitimate reporter for the Evening News. If you—”
“Second warning. Hand it over,” Kumagawa Masayoshi continued coldly.
“You...”
“Third warning. Hand it over.”
“No! I cannot stand by and watch a helpless young girl be bullied by all of you through favoritism and abuse of authority! My professional ethics tell me I cannot do that!” Hirono Miwa declared solemnly, gripping her phone tightly as she shouted.
Her impassioned, righteous expression made her look like a martyr prepared to sacrifice herself for justice.
And so...
A martyr was precisely what she became.
“Sheriff Kumagawa Masayoshi, identification number XXS-663**, applying to the Central Superbrain for the arrest of Hirono Miwa. Charge: theft of national secrets...” Kumagawa Masayoshi’s voice rang out coldly.
His words were transmitted through the electronic eyes nearby to the Central Superbrain of the Public Security Bureau.
Three seconds later, the hovering electronic eyes around them turned red. A brand-new wanted notice appeared in midair as a holographic projection.
“Name: Hirono Miwa
Age: Thirty-one
School graduated from: ...
Employer: ...
Page (1/3)
Page (2/3)
Everything was laid bare, from the hospital where she had been born to the number of hotel rooms she had booked during university. The information was densely packed, accompanied by photographs from every stage of her life.
The electronic eyes emitted a frigid synthetic voice:
“Sheriff Kumagawa Masayoshi, your application has been approved following review by the Central Superbrain of the Public Security Bureau.
“We will allocate computational resources from the Central Superbrain to assist you in carrying out the arrest.”
“Orange... an orange wanted notice! Those are for mass murderers and other extremely vicious criminals!” one of the hotel guests exclaimed.
Hirono Miwa, meanwhile, had gone completely blank. Her entire mind had crashed.
This was not a metaphor. It was a fact.
The secondary array of auxiliary memory nerves behind her neck had already been remotely frozen by the Public Security Bureau.
All the foreign languages she knew, her professional skills, her artistic cultivation, and everything else had become inaccessible to her memory.
“This is wrongful conviction! I want to appeal! I want to appeal...” Hirono Miwa was utterly panicked.
She pulled out her phone to call for help, only to discover that she could no longer unlock it.
She took out her bank card and tried to use its communications function, but was informed that every account associated with the card had already been canceled.
In simple terms, every identity she possessed in the real world had vanished. She had truly become a person who did not exist.
“This is the verdict rendered by the Public Security Bureau’s supreme superbrain. I am not framing you. After all, I am only a lowly sheriff. I do not possess that kind of authority,” Kumagawa Masayoshi said coldly.
He then ordered the public-security patrol officers nearby to arrest her.
Hirono Miwa continued struggling. One of the patrol officers struck her forehead with the steel butt of his gun.
He had intended to knock her unconscious, but she merely split her forehead open and screamed, becoming even more energetic.
Seeing this, the patrol officer drove the gun butt into her again and again. Each blow was no less brutal than being beaten over the head with an iron rod.
At last, on the sixth strike, Hirono Miwa passed out.
Of course, she might have died. But by then, it no longer mattered.
Anyone placed on an orange wanted notice received, at the very least, the death penalty.
Kumagawa Masayoshi said to Wakaba, “Young man, sorry to have disturbed you tonight. If anything happens in the future, remember to contact the Public Security Bureau. We will be leaving now.”
With that, he led his subordinates away, escorting Hirono Miwa with them.
The guests in the corridor seemed to become slightly dazed for a moment before returning to normal.
They looked at Wakaba and teased her, “Young man, you and your girlfriend certainly know how to have fun. Take care of your health.”
“Exactly. You even caused such a commotion.”
Looking at them, Wakaba could not shake the feeling that something was strange about them.
...
Elsewhere.
Page (2/3)
Page (3/3)
At the plaza of the Hoshino Hotel, Kumagawa Masayoshi and his group escorted the wanted criminal back to their vehicle.
“Captain, what exactly happened just now?” The youngest patrol officer in the group could not contain his curiosity. “Could it be that some extraordinary person lives in Tenchucho?”
Kumagawa Masayoshi stopped and looked at the patrol officer.
The solemnity in his gaze frightened the man, who hurriedly said, “Forget it, Captain. Just pretend I never asked.”
Kumagawa Masayoshi glanced at him and at the equally curious officers around him.
“You do not need to know anything else. All you need to know is that a noble lives in Tenchucho. That is enough.”
The moment they heard the word “noble,” every patrol officer’s expression changed. They immediately understood why their captain had behaved so strangely.
“So that young man really is connected to a noble!” one of the patrol officers said.
“No. I do not know,” Kumagawa Masayoshi replied.
“Huh? Then, Captain, you...”
“But even if it is not true, do you think we should investigate a noble?” Kumagawa Masayoshi countered, his sharp gaze sweeping over everyone. “Even if that young man does not know the noble at all, and merely heard those things from someone else, the moment he says them—and insists at the Public Security Bureau that he was acting on that person’s orders—the nature of the matter changes.
“The Public Security Bureau would at the very least have to make a call and ask that esteemed individual.”
He paused. Under the nervous gazes of the others, he continued, “And once that call is made, believe me, the best outcome for us would be dismissal. The director would not even need to wait for orders from that esteemed individual. To curry favor, he would dismiss us on his own initiative, and might even turn around and charge us with crimes.”
Several patrol officers swallowed hard. A bone-chilling dread rose in their hearts.
They knew their captain was telling the truth.
Because... that was exactly what they did themselves.
For certain cases, to prevent the matter from spreading and avoid being held accountable by their superiors, they usually determined which side was less likely to make trouble, made that side suffer, and then muddled through a swift conclusion.
Whether they earned merit was unimportant. What mattered was never being held responsible.
Putting themselves in the place of others, if they feared being held accountable by their superiors, how could their superiors not fear being held accountable by those above them?
To avoid blame and keep the positions they had worked so hard to obtain...
The outcome was self-evident.
“All right. There is no need for everyone to be so nervous. Tonight’s case was simply a quarrel between lovers and a reporter leaking national secrets, just like any other minor case,” Kumagawa Masayoshi said.
“But, Captain, what if that woman calls the police again next time?”
“Let another team handle it. As long as we stay out of anything involving nobles, we will be fine.”
“Yes, Captain. We understand.”
The other officers nodded heavily.
Page (3/3)